Daniel Sohn: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Daniel Sohn was arrested for allegedly impersonating a police officer while chanting “white power” during a Black Lives Matter protest, KTLA reported. Here is more about Daniel Sohn and what happened. This is a developing story.

A video from January 31 showed a man shouting “white power” and flashing a white supremacist symbol while wearing a Los Angeles Police Department shirt at a Black Lives Matter protest. Sohn has been identified as the man in the video.

Melina Abdullah, a Cal State LA professor, told KTLA that he was antagonizing and harassing protesters. Black Lives Matter called for a boycott of the gym as a result.

The video was taken at a 24 Hour Fitness in Hollywood, during a protest over the death of Albert Dorsey. Albert Dorsey, 30, was in a locker room at the 24 Hour Fitness that had been cordoned off. Staff had called the LAPD because Dorsey had assaulted a security guard earlier that day, KTLA 5 reported. Police responded and fatally shot Dorsey, who was not armed.

2. Sohn Said He Habitually Poses as a Police Officer, & Now Police Are Seeking Others Who Have Encountered Him

This wasn’t Sohn’s first time to impersonate a police officer, according to Sohn. L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Joanna Warren said that Sohn admitted to regularly posing as a police officer in order to get respect. Now police are seeking others who may have encountered him, KTLA reported.

3. Officers Found Him Sleeping in His Car, Wearing an LAPD Shirt

Officers said they found him at 12:10 a.m. on Friday sleeping in car outside a business on the 1200 block of North La Brea Avenue, CBS Los Angeles reported. They noticed he was wearing an LAPD shirt and that he was the same man in the Black Lives Matter video.

Sohn is 36 according to jail records. He’s being held on $2,500 bail at the West Hollywood sheriff’s station.

4. Sohn Was Identified on Twitter Days Earlier

Twitter had already identified Sohn as the man in the video several days before his arrest. People originally thought the man was an actual LAPD officer, which the LAPD refuted multiple times on Twitter.

At this point it does NOT appear that the individual in the video is an LAPD Officer, but we will continue to investigate.

At the time that Sohn’s video was taken, Black Lives Matter in Los Angeles wrote on Facebook, “Today we demonstrated outside 24-Hour Fitness in Hollywood on what would have been #AlbertRamonDorsey’s 31st along with his sister and niece. 24-Hour Fitness called the police on Ramon (who was a member of their gym) on 10/29/18 and LAPD murdered him while he was naked and exiting the shower. They called the police on us today. This off-duty LAPD officer was working out there this morning and decided to harass us after his workout. The dozen or so on-duty officers that had been called in by 24 held to the blue line and watched as this cop tried to intimidate us. This is what 24-Hour Fitness policies protect as they engage police to murder our people. This is what LAPD practice and condones.”

5. Sohn Was in the News in 2014 for Trying to Abandon His Dog Twice in One Day, But Sohn Claimed He Was Giving His Dog the ‘Freedom’ To Choose

Man caught on camera trying to dump dog talksDaniel Sohn, a man accused of trying to dump his dog at a Denver shelter and driving away, says he has an explanation why in an exclusive interview with 7NEWS.2014-05-28T04:41:18.000Z

In 2014, Denver 7 reported that Sohn might face animal cruelty charges for trying to abandon his dog, named Bronson, twice in one day. Aurora and Denver officials were investigating. A picture went viral showing a German Shepherd chasing his owner’s car after the second time he was left at a Denver shelter.

“I actually dropped him off and he followed me because we have a bit of a bond,” Sohn told Denver 7. “I didn’t ditch him. I dropped my dog off at the shelter where I did pick him up at, just to see if he preferred — I actually gave my dog a choice if he wanted to be with me or possibly find an owner he might feel better with.”

Witnesses said that Sohn had jumped into his car and taken off, even allegedly hitting the dog at one point, Denver 7 reported.

“I didn’t accidentally hit him. He jumped in front of my car but I felt he was triggered to do so as if, like, he was a mechanism of the surrounding people.”

It was unclear what happened to his dog. Sohn told Denver 7 something ambiguous about giving his dog freedom while they were at a park, and his dog possibly jumping out of his car window.